The victims were promised a job in a food packaging company in Canada. (Representational)
A man who claimed to have a business in Canada cheated nine unsuspecting people, including a woman and her two children, after falsely promising to send them to Canada for a job.
As depicted in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer film 'Dunki', the popular technique is used by migrants wherein they transit through other countries with lenient travel document requirements to reach their final destinations, usually countries like the US, the UK and Canada.
Mohit Chaddha invited the victims, who were from Ludhiana, to a lavish bungalow in Maharashtra's Lonavala, took them for a visit to Imagica water park and partied with them before giving them a spiked beverage and stealing their belongings. The victims were promised a job in a food packaging company in Canada.
He fled with six mobile phones, Rs 2 lakh worth of cash and even transferred Rs 7.5 lakh from a woman's bank account using her phone, all while his victims were unconscious. Two men named Harjeet Singh and Satish Rao have been accused of assisting him.
One of the female victims said she met Mohit on the matrimonial website Shaadi.com and that he promised to marry her and take her to Canada.
"I have sold all my household items in Ludhiana, I have become homeless. Everything happened within a few days. Actually, his behaviour was very good. Ask anyone if there was even one percent doubt. No one doubted that person," Surinder Kaur said.
Upon realising that they had been cheated, the victims, left without any money or mobile phones, spent the night at Lonavala railway station before filing a complaint with the police.
"We were told in the morning that we have to have an interview in the embassy, so he asked us to give him our phones. Everyone was given something mixed in mango shake, it was very strong, after that we did not know anything. Everyone fell asleep suddenly, the boys were unconscious. After that, around 5 o'clock, Harjeet Singh and Suresh Rao took the goods in an auto. We also have the number of the auto," one of the victims, Neha Malhotra, said.
Naji Arora, who had Rs 7.5 lakh taken out of her account, said, "All this transfer was done. After the transfer we came to know that they had left with the luggage. When we checked the CCTV, Mohit had left at 12 o'clock."
"All mobile phones are switched off right now, we are taking out their CDR (Call Detail Records), the woman had also met him in Santa Cruz, so we are taking her information. Today is only the first day of the investigation, so we cannot say much at the moment," said Police Inspector Suhas Jagtap of Lonavala City Police Station.
Last year, a Nicaragua-bound plane was grounded in France after it was allegedly used for a 'donkey flight'. Officials at the time had said that 299 of the plane's 303 passengers were Indian.
The flight's connection to Nicaragua raised eyebrows, as the central American nation has seen a surge in individuals seeking asylum in the United States. According to data from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), there has been a significant increase in Indians attempting to enter the US illegally, with 96,917 recorded in the fiscal year 2023, representing a 51.61 per cent jump from the previous year.